NEWTON’S LAW

OF UNIVERSAL
GRAVITATION

TANGLIBEN
VILLAREAL
 THE APPLE & THE MOON
Isaac Newton realized that the motion of a
falling apple and the motion of the Moon
were both actually the same motion, caused
by the same force - the gravitational force.
 NEWTON’S LAW OF UNIVERSAL
GRAVITATION
• The apple was attracted
to the Earth
• All objects in the
Universe were attracted
to each other in the same
way the apple was
attracted to the Earth
 Universal Gravitation
Newton’s idea was that gravity was a
universal force acting between any two
objects.
 At the Earth’s Surface
Newton knew that the gravitational force
on the apple equals the apple’s weight, mg,
where g = 9.8 m/s2.

W = mg
NEWTON’S LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION
 
Newton's law of universal gravitation
states that every particle attracts every
other particle in the universe with a force
which is directly proportional to the product
of their masses and inversely proportional to
the square of the distance between their
centers.

F = is the force between the masses;

NEWTON’S LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION
NEWTON’S LAW OF UNIVERSAL
GRAVITATION

• According to
Newton’s equation, Force Vs. Mass
F is directly 1

0.9
proportional to m1 0.8

and m2. 0.7

0.6

Force (N)
0.5
0.4

F  m1m2 0.3

0.2
0.1
0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Mass (kg)
NEWTON’S LAW OF UNIVERSAL
GRAVITATION

• According to
Newton’s equation,
F is inversely related
to the square of the
distance.

F
 Newton’s law of universal gravitation
has both direct and inverse
relationships.
m1m2 F a m1m2
F G 2 r3
F a 1/r2
r T  2
Change Result
Gm s
Change Result
2m1m2 2F 2r 1/4 F
3m1m2 3F 3r 1/9 F
4m1m2 4F 1/2 r 4F
½m1m2 1/2 F 1/3 r 9F
Measuring the Universal Gravitational Constant

 How large is the constant, G?

 The force of gravitational attraction

between two objects on Earth is relatively
small. In fact, it took 100 years from the
time of Newton’s work for scientists to
develop an apparatus that was sensitive
enough to measure the force kg2of
gravitational attraction.

G = 6.67 x 10 -11
Nm 2

kg 2
NEWTON’S LAW OF UNIVERSAL
GRAVITATION
 Example Problem:

The attractive gravitational force, Fg, between

two bowling balls of mass 7.26 kg, with their
centers separated by 0.30 m, can be calculated
as follows:
Practice
1. What is the gravitational force
between two 15 kg packages that
are 35 cm apart?
Practice
2. The gravitational force between
two electrons that are 1.00 m apart
is 5.54 x 10-71 N. Find the mass of
the electron.
Practice
3. The Moon’s mass is 7.34 x 10 22
kg, and it is 3.8 x 105 km away
from Earth. Earth’s mass is 5.97
x 1024 kg. Calculate the
gravitational force of attraction
between Earth and the Moon.